Monday, May 17, 2010

Did Keith Richards Invent Kraut Rock?

Don''t feel much like blogging these days since in that never ending game of bumper cars played by those of us who travel around NYC on bicycle against those in SUV's (who are always looking at their blackberries or Iphone and not the road), flesh and bone is sure to be the loser. Hence, my right hand has been in a hard cast and the rest of my body is awfully sore from the SUV the ran into me at 30 MPH at the intersection of 10th and B. last week. But since the Stones are out there promoting the re-issue of Exile On Mainstreet (originally released the day I turned a teenager, May 23, 1972), I thought I'd post this peculiar clip of Keith exploring Krautrock territory before the Krauts themselves got around to it. I'll be back soon as I can type with both hands.....

Ah. Well, the last time I rented Performance on DVD, the bonus materials included some footage similar to this: Mick plugging and unplugging those cables like Ernestine the switchboard operator while a '60s-sounding BBC-ish voiceover intones reverently about the master sound-sculptor fleshing out his conception from musical tones like bits of clay, which is sort of comical because he doesn't look like he really has much idea what he's doing. Maybe it was intended for Performance but given to Anger instead?

Back in February I slipped on an icy sidewalk the day after our first major snowstorm of the season and broke my right wrist, so I feel your pain (literally). Learning to negotiate daily activities lacking one's dominant hand is a hassle, but you'll adapt.

Right now, two months out of the cast, I'm still doing physical therapy, working at regaining strength in the hand and range of motion in the wrist. Apparently, it's typical to assume it can take up to possibly a year or nearly so to regain all or as much of one's normal hand function as one can expect to recover.

"Ah. Well, the last time I rented Performance on DVD, the bonus materials included some footage similar to this..."

I actually never got around to watching the bonus footage even though I've had the dvd for a few years now. He is seen playing one in Performance. I'm pretty sure the Anger soundtrack was done especially for Anger since he was close to the band and especially Anita and Marrianne for a couple of years. Mick is seen in the Anger movie as himself.

Oh no! I'm so sorry - I thought us LAers were the only ones subject to SUV madness.There's a clip of Mick in that too if you check the poster's others. The filmmaker, Mario Schifano, was a pre-Stones boyfriend of Anita Pallenberg's, then Marianne Faithfull's as well (!), but she left him and went back to Mick although they broke up for good shortly afterward. I bet he has some stories.

sorry to hear about your bout with the traffic. i was a long time bike commuter/racer in Seattle and have had my share bounces, fuck words and crashes caused by the four wheel crowd. keep the faith, brother!

I tore a tendon in my foot five years ago and it took almost three years to heal, getting old isn't as much fun as I thought it would be....I think all my connective tissue (tendons, ligaments, cartilage, etc.) is falling apart...evidently a common occurrence in those of us w/ hep c.

" Is the footage in the Keith footage from Anger's film? "No, from an Italian documentary made by Mario Schifano, one of Anita's ex-boyfriends called Umano Non Umanostarring film critic Adriano Apra w/cameos by Keith, Mick, Anita and the great writer Alberto Moravia. Credits can be found here:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0214236/

James "The Hound" Marshall

James "The Hound" Marshall is a former WFMU deejay (1985-97), music writer and bar owner (Lakeside Lounge NYC, Circle Bar, New Orleans). He has contributed articles to dozens of mags and newspapers including the Village Voice, NY Times, LA Weekly, Spin, Penthouse Forum, New York Rocker, Newark Star-Ledger, East Village Eye, High Times (columnist for ten years), Kicks, and worse.
He also wrote liner notes to CD re-issues by Larry Williams and Johnny Guitar Watson, Ray Price, Eric Ambel, Challenge Records,The Okeh R&B Box, and others as well as compiling three volumes of the early rock'n'roll compilations Jook Block Busters (Valmor). At age 17 he edited two issues of the punk fanzine New Order (1977) He was born in Paterson, N.J. and raised mostly in Broward County, Florida, moving to New York City at age 18 in 1977 and has resided there ever since except for 1998-2002 when he split his time between New York and New Orleans. He has been acclaimed in print in the New York Times, Village Voice, Time Out New York, New York Magazine,The Manhattan Catalogue, and other publications you wouldn't be caught dead reading.